Morning was finally over. The patched members had a meeting in Chapel earlier, which must have consisted of a heated debate as they had all returned with red faces and brooding silences. Alex hadn't interfered and had been doing her best to work without paying them much attention. She didn't know what the subject of the discussion had been; she had yet to see Kozik and usually he was the one who told her what she needed to know. But he was off to drop the guns they'd stolen from the Russians to Happy's aunt's house, which meant that both men would remain there to keep the business safe until the club found buyers.

As the trend had become of the past few days, Miles had taken to constantly commenting on her activities. With the warning Chibs gave echoing in the back of her head, she had taken to ignoring him. Now and then she'd had to redo some things, even when she knew Miles was wrong but it was easier than arguing, she didn't want to stick her neck out and end up in the ring. She would rather swallow Miles' teasing, which fortunately ended when the other men returned.

Now they were sitting in the clubhouse around a table, eating their lunch. The tension was still tangible and Alex avoided eye contact with everyone hoping to avoid provoking one of the already agitated members. The emotions from the day before were still messing with her head and she didn't completely trust herself.

Suddenly she felt a hand on her thigh, squeezing her flesh. Wildly she turned her head to the left; Tig.

The man looked at her with a wicked grin. "You know... That meeting we just had had me all tense. I could use help blowing off some steam." Evocatively he started to unbuckle his belt with his other hand.

With giant eyes, Alex looked at him. "Isn't that – Isn't that what the Croweaters are for?"

Tig shrugged his shoulders. "You do whatever I tell you, prospect."

Alex felt the blood drain from her face. Was he really serious? The man had only gotten out of prison yesterday, so she hadn't had much time to get to know him. She had no idea whether he was joking around or really expecting a blowjob.

Seeking help, her eyes shot to Juice, who was leaning back in his chair smirking. It had to be a joke, right?

"Why are you looking at Juice?" Miles mocked, catching her glance as he was seated in front of her. "You wanna suck his dick too?"

Alex felt the steam coming out of her head. She wasn't able to look at Juice and stared motionlessly at Miles. His confident grin made her feel like there were thousands of ants racing beneath her skin. Oddly enough an answer occurred to her that might save her.

"I just don't wanna get in your way," she answered Miles, with all the calm she could gather. "Last week you had told me you would choose Tig's dick to suck if you had been in Stockton together."

Miles' mouth opened and closed while his eyes shot to Tig. He didn't dare to confirm or deny her words.

"Fine by me, c'mere lover boy," Tig said with a chuckle.

Alex bit back a smirk now that the attention had shifted to Miles and refocused on her sandwich again. However, she was still unable to look at Juice, afraid he'd also misinterpreted her seeking glance for something other than help.

. . .

Alex had barely finished eating her lunch when she stood up and made her escape back to the garage where she continued her work. It wasn't until she had finished the last tune-up that had been scheduled for the day that she stood up and looked around. The others had gone back to work as well. A few steps away from her, Tig and Bobby were discussing something that was clearly upsetting them so she made her way away from them as she didn't want to give them the impression she was listening in.

Juice was pulling apart a motorcycle – Unser's bike, she realized much to her surprise, since he had only just been telling Juice that the last time he'd been out riding, there had been much more hair on his head. Even though Alex found it hard to face Juice, she grabbed onto the bike to create an opposing force allowing Juice to pull off the part he had been struggling with. He briefly nodded to her.

Right when she went to ask him what else she could do, Phil entered the garage.

"Jax is on the bar phone. He wants to talk to someone with a patch. He told me it was urgent."

She saw Juice's fingers stiffen around the tailpipe of the bike and knew he was worried.

"What was Jax doing?" she asked while she walked with him to the clubhouse, following Tig and Bobby.

"Visiting potential buyers for the guns we took from the Russians."

Alex didn't understand immediately why that would cause problems, but at the same time, she also realized that Jax wouldn't be calling the clubhouse for no reason.

The moment they entered the clubhouse, Clay joined them as well. He took the phone from Phil and the others waited with bated breath to find out what was going on. During the conversation, the look in Clay's eyes became darker and darker.

"The Russians are holding them prisoner," he announced with a grim tone after he'd ended the call. "They've given us one hour to return their stolen guns."

Chibs sighed. "It would take at least two hours before Kozik and Happy can get back with them."

Without saying another word the men walked outside. Since nobody had told Alex what to do, she exchanged a doubting look with Phil. When he decided to stay inside, she did the same. She put her hands in her pockets and waited, intending to continue the work in the garage as soon as the guys were gone. She felt it was safe to assume they were going to try and get Jax and Opie back.

The thought that another firefight might take place, made her throat tighten. What if there would be deaths on their side this time? Before the dark feelings could take her over, cops were suddenly swarming the building. Stupefied she watched how they smashed the place to pieces. Her eyes shot to the other side of the clubhouse, where she found the rest of the men watching the situation with grim faces. Nobody intervened.

Alex knew why: the clock was ticking. Every minute they wasted, would bring Jax and Opie closer to their deaths. In silence, everyone waited until the cops cooled down. They left the lot not long after, leaving behind a wreckage. The triumphant smirks on their faces showed how superior they felt, none of them realizing they'd just gotten lucky and picked a good time to invade the place and throw their weight around. It didn't take a genius to understand what brought the cops here: they blamed the MC for the three corpses they'd found earlier today, but lacked the evidence to prove their suspicions.

Alex grumbled internally because of the mess their frustration had left behind. When they finally left, her brothers followed immediately after, leaving Alex to clean up the mess in silence.

. . .

In the hours that followed, Alex cleaned up the place with the other prospects and the Croweaters that had shown up. On the bar, she piled up the pictures that had been knocked out of the frames, and when she held Kip's picture in her hand she stroked his face without thinking. It felt like a blasphemy that they'd ruined his picture frame.

"What the hell are you doin'?" She heard a sniff next to her ear. "You're fucking gay, you know he's dead right? You're rubbing up on a dead guy? You really are a freak."

Wildly Alex turned. Before she could stop herself, her fist hit his eye. She couldn't help it; the emotions were washing over. This time Miles recovered quickly, he pushed her backward until her head slammed against the wall and squeezed her throat.

"If you ever embarrass me again like you did this afternoon, I am going to rip that piece of iron out of your mouth."

"Aye!" a voice sounded.

Alex moaned when a fist hit her cheek. She even thought she might have heard a bone crack.

"Are ye two done fer once?"

Miles' nails left behind scratches on her neck when someone pulled him away from her. Chibs looked at both of them, his eyes filled with anger. "The first thing ye two ar' doin' tomorrow is settling this in the ring. And then ye leave it there or ye both lose yer patch!"

He squeezed their shoulders painfully and Alex closed her eyes for a moment.

"Tomorrow at nine. Not a second later. And if I hear one more unfriendly word tonight, I'll snap both of yer necks myself. Got that?"

Alex nodded, her lips pressed together. Her cheek was burning and the pain spread to her eye where tears were piling up.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. How the hell am I going to get out of this?

She breathed shakily and looked past Chibs, rubbing her throat. The men walked through the clubhouse with defeated faces. Despite the fact they'd tried to clean it up the past hours, it still was chaotic. The atmosphere that came with the men was a depressed one, which was puzzling since Opie and Jax were back and everyone seemed unharmed.

"I have some good news to share," Tara said all of a sudden.

Everyone turned to the woman, confused.

"Jax and I are getting married!" She raised her hand a little awkwardly, showing her ring.

For a moment everyone was stunned, then watery smiles appeared and the men started to congratulate the couple. Alex did the same, even though she couldn't feel the joy.

Tomorrow she had to deal with a different kind of ring.

Then they would discover she was a girl.